It’s been 13 years since Freaks and Geeks was cancelled by NBC and since that time, the show has become far more popular than it ever was on network television, where it bounced around from Saturday to Monday night, and was put on hiatus for weeks (or months) at a time. It is probably still the greatest cancelled-too-soon series of all time, and I have to imagine, one of the most popular series ever on Netflix.

There’s no particular occasion for this post; I just felt like reminescing about one of the best series ever, and the truest televised representation of all time about what it’s like to go through high school. One shortened season isn’t enough, but we’ll always have those 18 episodes.

1. Jesse Eisenberg was the second choice for the role of Sam Weir. Shia LaBeouf auditioned for the role of Neil Schweiber. Kaley Cuoco auditioned for the role of Cindy Sanders. Lauren Ambrose was considered for the role of Lindsay Weir. Busy Phillips also originally auditioned for the role of Lindsay Weir, but was asked to try out for Kim when it became clear she wasn’t right for Lindsay.

2. In addition, Lizzy Caplan auditioned for both the roles of Lindsay Weir and Kim Kelly before being later cast as Sara, which was her first ever television role. Caplan had a short appearance in the pilot, and popped up occasionally in the series before Feig finally found a good use for her in the finale, “Discos and Dragons.”

3. Freaks and Geeks essentially kept several of the cast members out of college. Jason Segel decided not to go to college to act on Freaks and Geeks; Seth Rogen dropped out of high school (although, he lied and said he was doing correspondance school, when in fact he was writing Superbad); and Busy Phillip and Linda Cardellini both dropped out of college.

4. Cancelled after 13 episodes (after the episode “Chokin’ and Tokin'”), Freaks and Geeks was the lowest rated series on NBC at the time, with an average of 7 million viewers. It aired against the 10th season of Cops on Saturday night, and got its ass kicked. Meanwhile, Parks and Recreation, now in its 5th season, gets about half that number of viewers on NBC today.

5. It had been a dream of Linda Cardellini’s to appear on Late Night with David Letterman, and when she finally got booked, her publicist called her and told her “It had been cancelled.” Cardellini asked, “Letterman has been cancelled”? She had very mixed emotions, being on Letterman (yay!) to talk about the cancellation of her series (boo!).

6. The age of the cast members at the time they were cast was fairly evenly split between those who were the right age to be in high school, and those who fit under the label of Dawson’s casting: John Francis Daley, 13; Linda Cardellini, 26; James Franco, 20; Jason Segal, 19; Seth Rogen, 16; Busy Philipps, 19; Martin Starr, 16; Samm Levine, 16. John Francis Daley was the only actor, however, who was the actual age of his character.

7. Though pilot director Jake Kasdan cast James Franco because he thought he’d one day be a big star, Apatow and Feig didn’t see it. They thought “his mouth was too big for his face and he seemed perfect to be a small-town cool guy who wasn’t as cool as he thought he was. When all the women in our office started talking about how gorgeous he was, me and Feig started laughing because we just didn’t see it.”

8. Before filming the pilot, Judd Apatow and Paul Feig had an awkward conversation with Linda Cardellini and Busy Phillips in which they suggested that the two NOT lose any weight like most television actresses, because they were so adamant about making everyone look like real kids.

9. Judd Apatow often thinks of the movies he makes as continuations of the lives of Freaks and Geeks characters, which is why he so often casts actors from the show in his movies.

10. Feig and Apatow refused to engage in stunt-casting, rejecting an idea from NBC to cast Britney Spears as a waitress in one episode.

He is going to be playing Lance Armstrong in Stephen Frears biopic. Frears has directed 6 different women to Oscar nominations including Helen Mirren who won for another biopic role in The Queen. I am smelling an Oscar nod coming his way and although he is very respected in the industry at the moment he will soon be more of a household name.

You won’t be disappointed. I watched the whole run with my girlfriend a few years ago (I had already seen it, she hadn’t) and it’s now one of her favorite things, and it just cemented my adoration of it. It’s one of the few things that totally lives up to all the hype. Just make sure you watch it in order that the show was meant to be watched, and not the weird order that NBC aired them in.

I was one of the few people who watched both shows when they came out and still love them today. I was only 10 when MSCL was on, but it was still realistic to me. I was a freshman when Freaks & Geeks aired, and it felt like I was watching my own life at times. I think both of them are two of the most relatable, realistic shows of all time, and that’s probably why they have the followings that they do and have stood the test of time.

That whole scene of Bill eating an after school snack and watching TV is so moving. It should be gross, watching Martin Starr’s bad teeth munching on chocolate and cheese, but it’s so well-performed and well-directed that it’s just really touching. Seeing Bill in that place of unbridled joy and happiness, with nobody to watch him or judge him, is probably my favorite moment for that character.

I thought that more folks knew about this: Cardellini and Segel became a real couple during the filming of the show, and dated for a few years. The ensuing break up and fallout was apparently ugly. Segel wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall about the experience/her. I reckon Apatow sided with Segel in the ordeal, and that explains her exclusion from the typically chummy clique.